The modern era of food consciousness has even arrived at the annual Lawry's Beef Bowl, for 58 years a glutinous prelude to the Rose Bowl.
In The New York Times, Billy Witz reports moderation was the name of the game when the Michigan State Spartans showed up.
When Michigan State’s football players paraded down the red carpet in their green-and-white traveling sweats, serenaded by a band playing the university’s fight song, they had not come to Lawry’s 58th Beef Bowl to devour the competition — or the racks of prime rib that were waiting to be sliced.
The Spartans had arrived, mostly, in the name of moderation.
But something profound has changed in recent years. Nutrition is now emphasized as an important component in athletic performance, and players are as likely to count calories as the pounds of meat they can eat.
Lawry’s has contributed to this change by limiting the amount of prime rib it serves each player: a 16-ounce cut followed by a 12-ounce second helping. It no longer publicizes how much each team eats, although the team and individual marks are believed to be held by Purdue in 2001 (734 pounds) and Michigan offensive lineman Ed Muranksy in 1978 (8 pounds).
Richard R. Frank, the president and chief executive of Lawry’s, cautioned both teams during their visits — Friday night for Michigan State and Saturday night for Stanford — that the Beef Bowl was no longer a competition.
The Beef Bowl cut, according to Lawry's menu, is $59. Included are crisp romaine and iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, shredded beets, chopped eggs and croutons, tossed with exclusive "Vintage Dressing;" mashed Potatoes; whipped with milk and lots of butter; Yorkshire pudding; and whipped ream horseradish.
The individual record holder for prime-rib consumption is believed to be Ed Muransky, a 6-foot-7, 320-pound tackle on the 1979 University of Michigan Rose Bowl team.
Muransky later told The Michigan Daily, in an interview published on Muransky's Wiki page: "Bubba Paris and I were two happy freshmen eating together at the Lawry's Beef Bowl event before the 1979 Rose Bowl Game. After we had enjoyed our fourth plate of prime rib, mashed potatoes, corn and Yorkshire pudding, Bubba asked what the record was, and they said 7 cuts.
"Bubba continued for 3 more cuts, and I continued for four, totally under the Bo Schembechler radar screen. When they delivered the 8th cut to me, the media started to gather around my table, Bo walked by and let me know what he was thinking without ever saying a word. Afterward, a Paris-Muransky night out ended with some pizza. The next morning in practice, Bo made an example of Bubba and me. We never ran so much in our lives as we did that day. We were in every play of scrimmage and then we ran sprints."
